Loud, Proud and I don't care about hurting a conservative's feelings!

I cannot believe I missed this from last year! The KKK took a decidedly dim view of the burning the Koran:

There are without doubt Islamic sects that teach extreme views of Islam but, going down to their level of hatred by burning their books is a dangerous and ignorant way to confront their teachings. The flames made by such unholy fires never die out! The Ku Klux Klan, LLC. opposes this most un-American thinking and activity.

As well as the Tea Party:

“Our Associates, members and supporters are here officially ordered: NOT to attend Tea Party events or support them in ANY way,” writes the Klan. “The Tea Party does not represent any but a shallow limited political agenda, which fails to serve our Nations interests. They are an extension of the Republican Party and seek to compromise it. We do NOT support any political party, all have betrayed the trust of the American people, and they have compromised their agenda to support the Progressive Socialist enslavement of the American people.”

Holy Jumping Jehoshaphat! The KKK, THE KKK!, is more aware of the difference between Muslim Extremists and normal people. That puts them far ahead of your average Fox viewer. And I don’t think I’ve seen a better description of the Tea Party in quite some time. “Shallow, limited political agenda?” Yeah, and that’s being nice about it!

My God. I present to you the moderate wing on the conservative movement: The frakking KKK.

Drool. Slobber. Did I mention drool? I cannot WAIT to see how the Xenomorphs ended up on the ship after it was all over. Or was it an ark ship meant to deliver a payload of death to Earth and there were multiple species of DOOM on board? EEEEEEEEE! I can’t wait!

Things we know: 1. The planet had a breathable atmosphere when Prometheus arrived, it doesn’t have one in Alien. Something bad had to happen in the interim. 2. Nobody survives this movie. Alien takes place maybe fifty years later. What are the chances of Weyland Industries ignoring a derelict alien ship that a survivor would have reported? 3. This movie is going to be frakking awesome!

I’ve been thinking of a way to explain to straight white men how life works for them, without invoking the dreaded word “privilege,” to which they react like vampires being fed a garlic tart at high noon. It’s not that the word “privilege” is incorrect, it’s that it’s not their word. When confronted with “privilege,” they fiddle with the word itself, and haul out the dictionaries and find every possible way to talk about the word but not any of the things the word signifies.

So, the challenge: how to get across the ideas bound up in the word “privilege,” in a way that your average straight white man will get, without freaking out about it?

Being a white guy who likes women, here’s how I would do it:

Dudes. Imagine life here in the US — or indeed, pretty much anywhere in the Western world — is a…

How is this legal? Pointing out red light cameras and speed traps? Meh. I guess. You’ll still slow down or not blow the light. Helping drunk drivers avoid DUI checkpoints? Absolutely irresponsible. The first person that dies in a crash that would have been avoided by pulling a drunk driver off the road should result in a charge of Murder Two for “a killing that resulted from a depraved heart or extreme recklessness.”

Does that make me a liberal over regulating job killer? I’ll just bet it does. I’m against entrepreneurs making money off the death of others. What a dick I am!

You know how people complain how both parties are just the same and all politicians are owned by corporations? Look no further than green energy to call bullshit on that. Solar and wind are endlessly renewable and can easily meet our energy needs even with the crude (relatively speaking) technology we have now. Democrats (most of them) are pushing it. President Obama is pouring billions into it and it’s working. Plant after plant are coming online across the nation. Every MegaWatt produced in this way is that much less dependence we have on dirty fossil fuels or dangerous nuclear power.

Republicans, on the other hand, are doing everything in their power to sabotage it. They’re trying to force the Department of Defense to abandon green technology. Why? Because with their limitless budget and the high priority the Pentagon has put on freeing the military from foreign fuel, it is only a matter of time until they make a breakthrough. Love it or hate it, the military has delivered a great number of technological advances we take for granted. GPS and the internet come to mind. This is something the right glosses over when they claim the government is useless.

Republicans are also trying to stop all government investment in green technology companies. We can’t stop oil subsidies or farm subsidies but solar and wind? Get rid of it!

With the exception of a handful of Democrats that are so obviously owned by Big Oil it’s disgusting, look at how the two supposedly “identical” parties approach the future of energy. It doesn’t get much more clear cut than that.

In 1906 an earthquake measuring between 7.7 and 8.25 hit California. San Francisco took the brunt of it. What wasn’t leveled outright burned later in uncontrolled fires. At least 3000 people were killed and almost 300,000 were left homeless of a population of 410,000. The Army was instrumental in keeping order and providing basic necessities until the civilian authorities could come to grips with the extent of the devastation.

Despite knowing full well that the area was prone to earthquakes, there were insufficient building codes in place. leading to hundreds, if not thousands, of unnecessary deaths. Afterwards, in the rush to rebuild, what little codes were in place were actually weakened until the 1950s. If San Francisco had experienced another quake of similar intensity, those older buildings would have been death traps just like the ones that preceded them. But who cares? No doubt the builders made money and they wouldn’t be the ones living and working in those houses and buildings anyway! And for the record, all those people in 1906 should have known better than to live in an earthquake zone and shouldn’t have expected help after their houses collapsed! Bootstraps, people! Bootstraps!

Behold the Libertarian Paradise!

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When a Republican/Libertarian says that government regulations “kill jobs” what they really mean is “costs money.” Every year, tens of thousands of people are injured or killed due to corporate malfeasance. And that’s with laws that are supposed to prevent that from happening. How many misfiring neurons are required for a right winger to believe that corporations would behave better with less regulation? No EPA? No FDA? The next time some jackass spouts off about how much better the country would be without that pesky government interference, ask them exactly how many lives are worth increasing the bottom line? How many children have to die from food poisoning? How many infants have to choke to death on a toy that breaks apart too easily? How many elderly have to die from “medicine” with known, but concealed, deadly side effects? All so a CEO can make millions to hide in an offshore account. Ask them for the price tag in lives for “FREEDOM?” At what point did money become more important than lives?

I think you’ll find the answer most revealing about how little they think about the real world consequences of deregulation and “FREEDOM” or how little they care about their fellow human being.